The Week Before
by Crunchy18
Summary: A depiction of the week prior to the Uchiha Downfall.


_**The Week Before**_

_A depiction of the week before the Uchiha Downfall_

_By Crunchy_

_This is not meant to be factual. Anything that collides with canon is accidental._

_Also, this is not meant to be very long._

**The First Day.**

The sun rose. The horizon was bloodied by this new sun. Uchiha Itachi had gazed upon this sun for the last ten years, but every second that took him closer to his duty under this sun gave him both a feeling of sadness and empowerment. "Damn it," he said, realizing that he had been out training for hours before daybreak. He quickly chased that thought off, as he was one of the two Uchiha who was not in this coup d'etat. While Itachi opposed it, Sasuke possessed no knowledge of it. Itachi finished his training, and he then returned home for breakfast.

When he entered the house, the scent of his mother's excellent cooking assaulted his senses, and he got some. It turned out to be a horrid gruel that possessed no nutritional value, and when Itachi inquired about it, Mikoto replied, "It's to lower your senses, for you will have to consume food to which this looks like the most delicious course ever." Itachi gulped it down, and asked his father about how the plot was going. "Well, Izumi's branch has fallen, so it will be up to you to massacre the Anbu." Itachi frowned, at a sudden mental indecision. Would he carry out his orders to kill the Uchiha, or would he obey his father and massacre the Anbu? His father pressed on, "We only have three weeks before that pest group returns to Hiruzen with intel that would result in our extermination. Itachi, I'm sorry to lay another task upon you, but you must kill those three that would kill us." Itachi agreed, and left the house. Walking through the woods to leave the village, he encountered Madara.

He was an odd man, to say the least. He spoke and acted with levity, but the things he said and did were dead serious. He wore a black cloak with red clouds on it and a mask that swirled around an eye. Itachi held several doubts that he wasn't the real Madara, for Madara had founded his village 200 years ago. So, Itachi just called him Tobi. As they hopped through the trees, Tobi pulled out a kunai, muttering, "They're over there." True enough, they were. Tobi warned, "Do not look into my eye. The Mangekyo is on." Itachi simply prepared a genjutsu with his Sharingan, and sent a Crow Clone down to his opponents. The clone threatened, "Do not go further. Obey our will and you just may live. First, the one in purple must stand one meter in front of that tree right there. The one in the vest must stand in front of the other tree. You in the middle, I have seen with my Sharingan that you are one of the two Wood Style users alive. Use the Wood Strangulation Jutsu on your comrades, and live, or I shall kill all of you with the Uchiha clan's Fire Style jutsu." Wood burst out of the trees and strangled the two shinobi. "Fire Style: Uchiha Shuriken Jutsu!" the clone exclaimed as the Demon Wind Shuriken that it threw at the opponent burst into flames. It embedded itself in the third shinobi's side, and he bled out. The clone dispersed, and Itachi burned his opponents' bodies with another Fire Style jutsu. The murderous wood became nothing but ashes, and the wind scattered them around until there was no sign of any battle. But, Itachi and Tobi were now horribly lost somewhere in the Land of Fire. And so, they decided to roam to the north.

Eight hours later, they left the forest and stumbled into a shipyard. Curious of their whereabouts, Itachi asked a sailor where they were. "This is Kirigakure, fool. Does the mist not tell you that already?" he replied. Tobi thought for a minute, and recalled that one of the shinobi was making hand signs- those of a transportation jutsu. "He must have taken advantage of the dizziness that Wood Style incurs, and used it to transport all of us to Kirigakure," Tobi said with a great levity. "We need to speak with someone who lives not that far away, though, so it's not all bad," he added. Itachi asked, "Who?" to which Tobi replied, "Momochi Zabuza." Itachi flinched, for he was listed in Konoha's bingo book in gold letters. Ten years prior, he had killed over a hundred of his peers, and three years ago, he obtained the Seversword. But Itachi agreed, for he knew that the Seversword could be vital in his task. And so they started walking towards a boat bound for the Badlands, an unclaimed, lawless zone where rogue shinobi could come and go as they please. Many murders of famous ninja occurred here. Both Zabuza and Tobi owned homes there, but Tobi preferred the woods surrounding Konohagakure because his land in the Badlands was worn down and in a poor condition. Once they found the boat, and landed, they made a beeline for Tobi's house. "The less time we spend here, the better. This place is crawling with low-level thieves and killers who all eat out of Zabuza's hand because he owns a five foot steel rod. But he may just help the Akatsuki," Tobi said nonchalantly as he tossed Itachi a cloak identical to Tobi's. Itachi was confused as to what the Akatsuki was, but he put on his cloak and hid his headband. They walked for what seemed like a millennium, but it was only ten minutes. Tobi led the way to his house. He was right. It was a run-down one-story building with a group of criminals in the basement. They all wore the same cloak as Tobi. The evident leader had orange hair and a ton of piercings. His second-in-command had purple hair and seemed to be made of paper. The rest were also pretty odd, but Tobi ushered Itachi from that spot, telling him, "They are all S-ranked criminals. Any of them could kill you in a second." But Itachi could swear that one of them looked like a shark. Itachi and Tobi went to sleep, listening to the conversation of the group in the basement. "No, Kisame, Tobi's only here because he has to get the Seversword." "No, Zetsu, we can't kill them. Yet." "No, we can't blow this place up, Tobi said he would kick us out if you tried that." "Kisame, that's brilliant."


End file.
